Sir Keir Starmer says ‘nobody is ruling out Remain as an option’ in any possible second referendum… Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has insisted “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option” in a fresh referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU. In a bid to push past confusion on Labour’s position should there be a second public vote, Sir Keir declared the party could still back voters having the choice of staying in the EU. In his speech to Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Sir Keir said if Theresa May could not reach a Brexit deal with the EU, or parliament votes against an agreement, then Labour “must step up again and shape the debate”. He said: “Our preference is clear, we want a general election to sweep away this failed government.” And, deviating from a draft version of his speech, Sir Keir added: “But, if that’s not possible, we must have other options. That must include campaigning for a public vote. “It’s right that parliament has the first say, but if we need to break the impasse our options must include campaigning for a public vote and nobody is ruling out Remain as an option.” – Sky News > WATCH on BrexitCentral’s YouTube channel: Sir Keir Starmer says “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option” > LISTEN on BrexitCentral’s YouTube channel: Sir Keir Starmer tells Radio Four “All options should be on the table in a second referendum” …and that we may not leave the EU on 29th March… Shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, has refused to categorically rule out extending Article 50. In an interview with talkRADIO’s Ross Kempsell at the Labour party conference, the politician said it was possible that the “October deadline might slip to November” and “November might slip to December”. Sir Keir said: “We don’t know when we’re going to get a deal. The October deadline might slip to November, November might slip to December. I don’t know, I’m not conducting the negotiations so the timeline is not in our control.” “I don’t think at this stage anybody’s talking about extending Article 50, but if it has to be extended, quite frankly, it’ll be because of the collapsing failure of the discussions and the negotiations. – talkRADIO > Read on BrexitCentral: Text of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech to Labour Conference …as Jeremy Corbyn says the Government would have to return to the negotiating table if Parliament rejects its Brexit deal The UK government would have to return to the EU negotiating table if Parliament rejects its Brexit deal, Jeremy Corbyn has told the BBC. Mr Corbyn said Labour would decide whether to back the deal based on its six tests – which the party says the government is currently nowhere near meeting. He denied this made the possibility of no Brexit deal more likely. He also refused to say how he would vote if there is another EU referendum. – BBC News Labour’s Brexit policy evolves hour by hour – Steerpike for The Spectator’s Coffee House blog > On BrexitCentral today: Brandon Lewis MP: Labour’s promises to respect the referendum result now lie in tatters Brendan Chilton: The Labour brand is being damaged by all those in my party talking of a second referendum Theresa May says a no-deal Brexit would be better than a Canada-style Brexit… The prime minister has said a “no-deal” Brexit would be better than a Canada-style deal proposed by rebel Brexiteers, which she claims would lead to the break-up of the UK. Speaking during her flight to the UN General Assembly in New York, Theresa May also hit out at Labour, saying the party would “accept any deal Europe gives, regardless of how bad it is for the UK”.Asked directly by reporters whether no deal would be better than a free trade agreement like that agreed between the EU and Canada, Mrs May said: “I’ve always said no deal is better than a bad deal, and I think a bad deal, for example, would be something that broke up the United Kingdom. “What we’ve put on the table is a good deal.”It’s a deal which retains the union of the UK, our constitutional integrity, it’s a deal which provides for no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, protects jobs and enables us to have a good trade relationship with Europe and the rest of the world.” – Sky News …as it is reported that the EU is open to a free trade deal but not the Chequers customs plan… EU negotiators are ready to offer Theresa May a free-trade area after Brexit but say that, contrary to her “Chequers” plan, there must be a customs border that will make trade less than “frictionless”, according to an internal EU document seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The document — three pages of “defensive points” for EU officials to make against the UK prime minister’s July proposal on future ties with the bloc — may offer May some comfort in showing a readiness to seal a free trade agreement (FTA) like those giving access to Japan or Canada’s goods and services. But as she prepares for her Conservative Party conference this weekend, it also rams home, in some detail, the rejection of the Chequers proposal for a special customs deal that would avoid border checks on goods and keep supply chains fluid. – Reuters …while ex-minister Mark Francois puts Downing Street on notice that the ERG would vote down Chequers A group of Conservative MPs will vote as a block against any Brexit deal based on Theresa May’s Chequers plan, ministers have been warned. Mark Francois told the BBC that he and other members of the European Research Group could not support the PM’s plans as they “do not represent Brexit”. Asked how many MPs could rebel, he said it was “well north of 50”. Mr Francois said the PM would “lose” any vote and should embrace an alternative Canada-style trade plan… Mr Francois suggested any deal based on Chequers had no chance of winning parliamentary approval and a looser Canada-style accord, which would not require the UK to sign up to EU rules, was what was needed. – BBC News > LISTEN on BrexitCentral’s YouTube channel: Mark Francois’s interview with Radio Four May pledges to slash taxes to lowest rate in G20 after Brexit Theresa May will on Wednesday pledge to use low tax and “smart regulation” to make post-Brexit Britain an economic powerhouse and the envy of Europe. The Prime Minister will tell an audience in the United States that Britain will have “the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G20” after leaving the EU, making it “one of the most business-friendly economies in the world”. As well as being a sales pitch to foreign investors, Mrs May’s comments will be seen as an attempt to convince Eurosceptics that she can be trusted to maximise the benefits of Brexit as she prepares for a challenging Conservative Party conference next week. – Telegraph (£) Angela Merkel says the transition period is too short unless there’s a deal on the table soon Angela Merkel has warned the British government that the 21-month Brexit transition period will not be long enough if the terms of a future trade deal with the UK are not made clear and concrete in the next eight weeks. In a speech to industrialists, the German chancellor gave her support to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who wants to avoid a vague political declaration on the terms of a future deal. The move means that the UK parliament will be under no illusions as to the limitations of the future deal the British prime minister strikes before its meaningful vote, in a blow to those who have suggested that a “blind Brexit” could allow Theresa May to muddle through. – Guardian Brexit deal can be done by November, insists Taoiseach Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insists he still believes a Brexit deal can be done by November despite the turmoil in the Tory party. The Irish Border remains the most vexed issue still facing UK and EU negotiators, and Mr Varadkar warned the damage caused to Britain and Ireland by failure in the talks would be “immense”. A special meeting of European leaders in Brussels has been mooted for November if the two sides are close to reaching agreement. Mr Varadkar said: “I do think we’ll get there. I think we’ll get there in November because nobody wants us to end up with a no-deal scenario because the damage for the UK would be immense. “The damage for Ireland would also be immense and it would have a serious impact on other countries like Belgium, Holland, and France and Denmark. “So I believe we will get there in November but we are in uncharted territory.” – Irish Independent Extending Article 50 talks may be ‘essential’ claims Scottish think tank Experts claim that extending the timetable for the UK’s European departure talks may be “essential.” A new report by the Fraser of Allander Institute think tank, based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow warns about the impact of “sleepwalking” into a no-deal Brexit. It insists that an orderly transition for Brexit is “vital.” As a result its director Professor Graeme Roy said extending the Article 50 negotiating period – something Prime Minister Theresa May has already ruled out – could be “essential”, even if it proves “unpalatable” to the UK Government. He spoke out as the think tank cautioned: “Sleepwalking into a ‘no-deal’ outcome cannot be viewed as an effective economic plan.”The report also demanded: “Now is the time for effective and strong leadership from all our political leaders.” – Evening Standard Details of MEPs’ €4,416-a-month expenses to remain secret, court rules An EU court has rejected calls for greater transparency about MEPs’ expenses, as it upheld a decision that politicians are not required to reveal how they spend public money intended for their offices. In a blow to transparency campaigners, the Luxembourg-based general court upheld the decision of the European parliament that MEPs do not have to provide invoices and receipts for their constituency office costs, or provide the public with details of travel expenses. It concluded that an obligation to publish spending records would undermine MEPs’ privacy, concluding that campaigners had failed to prove publishing information was “appropriate and proportional”. – Guardian /*COMMENT*/ Nigel Farage: Chuck Chequers, Theresa, and you’ll save your career, unite the country and crush Labour Theresa May has a choice to make. She can either cling to the Chequers proposal that to her represents a life jacket – but which is actually dragging her government down – or she can take the decisive action this situation merits and go for a clean break deal. All that stands between the UK and this positive outcome is a few die-hard Tory Remainers. The question is, is Theresa May still one of them – or is she brave enough to do the right thing? – Nigel Farage MEP for the Telegraph (£) The Times: Money Trough If more proof were needed that institutions of the European Union are insular, hypocritical, amoral and blind to political imperatives, they provided it yesterday. The ruling by the European General Court, a subsidiary of the European Court of Justice, that the European parliament was right last year to decline requests for information about members’ expenses is a charter for political corruption. Unless the ruling is overturned on appeal, MEPs will be allowed to go on pocketing expenses allowances worth more than €4,000 a month in addition to their €8,611 monthly salaries. They can do this without keeping receipts or making any public disclosure of how the money has been spent. That this spending has been subject to so little scrutiny was already a scandal. That an opportunity arose to remedy the situation only to be rejected by both the European parliament and one of the EU’s highest courts is unconscionable. – Times (£) editorial Details of MEPs’ €4,416-a-month expenses to remain secret, court rules – Guardian The Sun Says: Theresa May’s promise to make post-Brexit Britain pro-business will focus minds in Brussels The Prime Minister is right to promise that post-Brexit Britain will be resolutely pro-business. But reality needs to match rhetoric. Our tax burden under this Tory government is currently as high as it was under Labour’s Harold Wilson. Ordinary Brits are pummelled in their pay packet and at the petrol pump. Our high street is battered by bruising business rates. And all this before they put up taxes to pay for a promised NHS cash injection, even if nobody knows where that money will be spent yet. If the Chancellor puts up fuel duty, as rumours suggest, he’ll turn the “just about managings” into “no longer managings”. The PM and Chancellor must grasp the nettle on creating a genuinely vibrant, dynamic economy. The best response to the swivel-eyed lunacy of John McDonnell’s Marxism is a growing economy with rising living standards. That means laying out a real plan for a low-tax, free-market Britain. It might focus minds in Brussels, too. – The Sun Says Philip Johnston: The EU referendum has proved an unmitigated disaster – let’s not have a second one The question now is how do we get out of this mess without breaking the system entirely?…When people say that this would still not resolve the EU question what they really mean is that it would not reverse Brexit. But that matter has been settled and a new government would still be bound to leave the EU, just as John McDonnell and union boss Len McCluskey have pointed out at Labour’s conference.If Labour really wants to reverse Brexit then they will have to spell that out in a manifesto and win power with a sufficient majority able to push the legislation through Parliament. Good luck with that; but this is how we should do things in this country. We are supposed to be a parliamentary democracy, not a glorified game show. Our flirtation with referendums has been an unmitigated disaster. Let’s never have another. – Philip Johnston for the Telegraph (£) Bernard Ingham: Brexit is the inevitable consequence of ignoring Margaret Thatcher’s speech at Bruges 30 years ago If you want to know where Brexit came from, go to Bruges in Belgium. There, 30 years ago this month, Margaret Thatcher bluntly told the European Community it was going wrong. That was a turning point in our history. It marked the start of our rejection of the concept of a federal United States of Europe and of the suppression of nationhood. Mrs Thatcher wryly acknowledged that her presence at the College of Europe might seem to some like inviting Genghis Khan to speak on the virtues of peaceful co-existence.Yet it was far from being an anti-European speech. Indeed, after emphasising our European ancestry, culture and contributions to its liberty – 120,000 British soldiers lying buried only a few miles away – she said our destiny was in Europe as part of the EC. The unspoken question was what kind of EC. It is the failure of Europe to provide a satisfactory answer that led to us voting to leave the European Union next March. – Sir Bernard Ingham for the Yorkshire Post > Conor Burns MP last week on BrexitCentral: Margaret Thatcher’s prophetic Bruges speech thirty years ago sparked the debate that led to Brexit Mark Wallace: Starmer chances his arm by challenging McDonnell and McCluskey over Brexit Starmer says in, McDonnell says out, Watson in, Unite out, and shake it all about. Yes, it’s the Labour Party’s Brexit hokey-cokey. Again. It can, at times, be a bit hard to keep track of all the tricksy footwork going on, so here’s the latest state of play…If Starmer calculates he can use this issue and its supporters not only to make himself indispensable but to take on and beat McDonnell, McCluskey, et al, it is a bold move. Those he is challenging are veteran knife-fighters, who are far from powerless within the Labour Party even though times are changing. What’s more, the issue is becoming bound up with the wider, toxic atmosphere of suspicion between Labour factions. It’s notable that Labour Leave’s response to the speech includes a cautionary note: “…the speech had more in common with a leadership stump speech than a policy announcement. Many people will wonder whether Sir Keir is trying to line himself up as the Remain replacement for Jeremy. Today’s speech shows that Keir is captive to New Labour interests in People’s Vote.” – Mark Wallace for Conservative Home Tom Slater: Our hollow prime minister The main, in fact only selling point of the Chequers Deal – the Brexit plan May pushed through her cabinet at the cost of her two leading Brexit-supporting ministers – was that it was workable. That it would kind-of deliver on Brexit, satisfy parliament, and be negotiable with the EU. But none of this, of course, turned out to be true. Her plan, which would keep us in the Single Market for goods, has been roundly rejected by voters: a poll this week has support for it at just 11 per cent. Labour is committed to voting it down, and so are around 80 Tory MPs. And on Monday, at the meeting of European leaders in Salzburg – which fittingly resembled a summit of Bond villains – the EU rejected it out of hand. If this is ‘getting the job done’, I’d hate to see the alternative. Indeed, the paradox of May’s ‘realistic’, ‘what works’ approach to these negotiations is that it is clearly unrealistic and not working. – Tom Slater for Spiked Iain Martin: How to sort out this second referendum nonsense – make it best of five Were you up for Starmer? Labour’s shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer was given a standing ovation at Labour conference when he declared that “Remain” is still an option for Labour if it defeats the government on Brexit. Inevitably, this has got the pro EU flag-waving People’s Vote crowd (I must stop calling them the People’s Vote loonies, that’s really not fair) very excited. Good reporters on the ground – including Thomas Penny of Bloomerg – point out that it was only about a quarter of the crowd that stood up for Starmer. I noted several Labour MEPs involved in the standing up. Cannot think why those soon to be ex-MEPs might want another vote on staying in the EU. One of life’s little mysteries…In this premium solution we make it best of five. That’s… 1975 (win for remain), 2016 (win for leave), then 2057 (win for ?), and 2098 (win for ?), with the final decider on whether or not the UK should be in the EU, assuming that earth still exists, to take place in a live televised grand finale decider in 2139.- Iain Martin for Reaction Paul Goodman: “Official and significant”. The ERG declares that it will vote against Chequers. There can be little doubt that enough would do so to make the passage through the Commons of any proposal based on Chequers very difficult indeed, if all Opposition MPs combined to oppose it too. The plan looks to be on its last legs. In Cabinet, it isn’t just the Brexiteers who are casting about for an alternative: former Remainers such as Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss are sympathetic to a Canada-type plan. The ERG move is designed to kill Chequers off altogether. Our sense is that the plan will survive next week’s Conservative Party conference, but probably not much longer. As we said yesterday, Cabinet members don’t want to weaken the Prime Minister as she prepares for Birmingham. Her reiteration yesterday of the Government’s commitment to cut corporation tax further is an early sign of how she will use her bully pulpit to fight back next week. – Paul Goodman for Conservative Home Comment in Brief Labour Party conference special, featuring Sir Keir Starmer MP – Chopper’s Brexit Podcast Please, please free me from Brexit Groundhog Day Brexit Groundhog Day Brexit Groundhog Day… – Robert Halfon MP for Conservative Home Labour backing a second referendum shows democracy is working beautifully – Zoe WIlliams for the Guardian News in Brief Jeremy Corbyn Labour Party conference speech to focus on economy instead of Brexit – Metro Kate Hoey’s Brexit warning to Corbynistas – The Spectator